By Gordon Stone

HORWICH RMI Harriers' Irish international fell runner Ian Conroy maintained his fine form with victory in Saturday's Thieveley Pike fell race.

Conroy, who finished 25th in the World Mountain Running Championships a week earlier, edged out Harrogate's Chris Miller to win and improve on last year's third place in the 4.3-mile race in the Pennines near Burnley.

Former English V40 and V50 champion Graham Schofield was 17th in 38mins 38secs with V50 Garry Chadderton hot on his heels in 19th in 39:18, while V40 Nick Kelly was 26th in 40:43 and V65 Tony Hesketh, 41st in 42:40.

Sandra Kelly was first F45, 47th overall, in 43:56 with V50 Doug Fleming 71st in 46:42 and Conroy's brother Patrick 102nd in 54:27.

Horwich juniors were also successful with Emilia Bailey first girl in the under-12 race and Lydia Johnson not far behind with Freya Whittle and Ellie Green first and second girls in the u10 race.

Elsewhere, there was an excellent turnout of Horwich Harriers at the first cross-country race of the season – the opening fixture of the Mid Lancs League.

Despite the summery weather, the course was still a demanding one but Debbie Campbell had a fine run to finish seventh out of 141 in the Ladies' senior race, completing the 6k course in 27mins 7secs.

Paul Massey continued his fine form, following the Northern Six Stage Relays to finish 27th and second vet in the 10km men’s race with Andy Lloyd, Alastair Murray and Dave Milliken giving strong support to enable a clear victory for the Horwich V40 team.

Chris Essex-Crosby and David Barnes completed the senior team counters, with the latter involved in a tight battle with the remaining three Horwich men, Mark Swindell, Gordon Stone and John Parker, who were within metres of each other for much of the race.

Horwich results: 27 Paul Massey (V40) 38:18; 38 Andy Lloyd (V40) 39:32; 47 Alastair Murray (V40) 40:08; 52 Dave Millikan (V40) 40:44; 73 Chris Essex-Crosby 42:22; 197 David Barnes (V50) 51:57; 198 Mark Swindell (V40) 52:08; 216 Gordon Stone (V60) 54:39; 221 John Parker (V70) 55:25.

The Massey family was again to the fore in the junior races with u13 Thomas and Luke (u17) both finishing second with Luke's time 22:29 for the 6km race.

Proceedings commenced with the u11 girls race where Chloe Fitzgerald was 56th in 8:52 and Skye Nicholson was 59th in 9:04.

Cian Healy was so close to winning the u11 boys race – just one second behind the winner Dexta Thompson of Clayton in 5:55 for 2km course.

After winning the under-13 team award last year, the Horwich juniors were keen to retain their trophy and with Thomas Massey second in 12:37, Matthew Flatters sixth in 12:54, Luke Brindle seventh in 13:08 and Lucas Milliken 18th in 13:49, they finished on 15 points – three ahead of Blackburn.

In the u15s race, Lewis Wilkes and Kieran Kinealy, who have moved up from u13s last year, both performed well with fourth and 19th places in 15:06 and 17:36 respectively.

Meanwhile, Joe Mercer put in masterful performance on Sunday to win the Holcombe Mountain Duathlon in 1hr 58mins 8secs.

The event comprised two 6.3km fell races with 210 metres of climb, sandwiching a 27km bike ride with 370 metres of ascent.

Tony Hesketh finished 39th overall, winning the prize for first V60.

At the Ron Hill 77th Birthday Race, Rob Jackson finished second from the 93 finishers.